A new collaboration between five of the South East’s leading research institutions launched today. South East IP brings together the latest research from five research institutions across the South East, making it available to business and investors in a single, easy-to-search format. The service is designed to help businesses and investors to find the new technologies they need to grow their businesses, and for researchers to a route to market for their ideas.

With initial funding of £75,000 from the UK Intellectual Property Office the new site will accelerate the exploitation of Innovation in the South East by providing a single place for investors and companies looking for specific technologies, to look for IP from a collection of institutions in the South East; .providing a service to help participating institutions source specific expertise and equipment from other institutions in the network, and; .encouraging collaborations and joint funding applications.

The South East IP partners are The National Physical Laboratory, the Universities of Surrey, Reading, Sussex and Royal Holloway University of London.  Together, these five institutions produce a large part of the South East’s research. Now, for the first time, investors can find up to date information on research output from every institution in one place.

The launch of the new service marks the beginning of intensified collaboration between Research Establishments and universities in the region to develop more effective routes to market for their research.

David McCallum, Intellectual Property Officer at the University of Surrey, said,

“For the first time, details of new techniques and technologies developed at our five partner institutions have been brought together in one place, and in a form that investors and businesses can search to find the opportunities they are looking for. This is a big step forward for the whole region in matching technology research in the South East with investment, and we are excited to be a part of it.”

Speaking at a Maritime London lunch earlier this month, Holman Fenwick Willan partner Andrew Chamberlain said that the consequences of a serious incident involving one of the larger containerships “may well result in a complete change in the accepted liability regimes and even the traditionally accepted insurance arrangements for such large vessels.”

Recent high profile container ship casualties have involved relatively small vessels capable of carrying up to 4688 containers (MSC Napoli).  The Rena, which is currently breaking up off the coast of New Zealand, has a capacity of 3352 containers. By comparison, the largest vessels sailing today are carrying over 15000 boxes.

He told the audience of salvors, insurers, shipowners and other maritime professionals that in the event of the loss of the largest class of containership, the epic scale of the incident would mean that the salvage industry would struggle to deal with the removal of the containers and wreckage. He warned that the salvage industry had limited and ageing resources, was increasingly risk averse and today consisted of only around four or five companies with a genuine global capability.

He noted that the legal environment for dealing with these types of incidents was becoming increasingly demanding with rising claims, disproportionately high clean-up costs and the near impossibility of disposing or recycling of a wreck thanks to the restrictive legal regime now imposed by the 1996 Protocol to the London Dumping Convention and the OSPAR Convention, combined with the absence of suitable recycling facilities.

He added:

“The industry is facing the perfect storm. We have a global recession, high cargo values (relative to ship values), ever larger and untested ships, environmental concerns and increasing public and government awareness of the impact of shipping incidents. Since the Napoli in 2007 any marine casualty is much more likely to be on the front page of every newspaper.”

As a consequence of these scandals – the Robert Maxwell scandal of 1991 is probably the most famous example in the UK – and companies, facing a pensions ‘black hole’ because of poorer-than-expected investment returns, being unable to pay employees what they once promised, all funds now paid into a medium or large company’s pension scheme must be held in trust.

This legal requirement not only prevents business owners helping themselves to pension scheme money whenever they want, but it also stops the pension fund counting as a business asset which might then be at risk if the company fails.

Small companies can also employ trusts to look after their pension schemes. But they don’t have to if they don’t wish it. Instead, they can choose to run a GPP, a group money-purchase personal pension scheme, which requires a pensions adviser and an administrator only and not the appointment of independent trustees.

The role of the trust is simple, to administer and protect the company pension fund and thus enable it to grow in value. It is independent of the company and the pinnacle of a triangle, with employer and employees forming the other two points.

All sides of the triangle need to work together to successfully achieve the pension fund’s primary goal, which is to ensure money moves from employee to employer pension scheme and then eventually back again to the beneficiary, the retired employee.

The job of the trustee is a demanding one at the best of times and now requires a degree of knowledge and understanding unknown in the past. The trustee can be either a lay person, a paid professional, or even a company – known as a corporate trustee. The corporate trustee will usually be the director, with the same responsibilities as an individual trustee. The pension scheme’s employer can also be the corporate trustee.

Often an individual trustee will be just one of a number of trustees looking after the pension scheme. If that is the case, the group is known as the board of trustees. Anyone is eligible to become a trustee provided they fulfil a few basic requirements.

Trustees must be aged 18 or over and be legally capable of holding property. They cannot have a conviction for an offence involving dishonesty or deception (unless it is spent) or be an undischarged bankrupt or have voluntary agreements with creditors.

Independent trustees must not be disqualified from acting as a company director, or have property in Scotland covered by a sequestration order. They cannot be a trustee if they are a company which already has one of its directors disqualified from being a trustee. The same applies with a Scottish partnership where any of the partners have been disqualified from being a trustee.

According to the latest Business Failures figures from leading business information provider, Equifax, the number of businesses going bust has risen by 2.2% in Quarter 2 2011, compared to Quarter 1. In the North West business, failures have steadied, rising by just 0.2% compared to the same period last year, but compared to Q1 2011, failures dropped by 3.3%, offering further good news for the region. However, all regions need to proceed with caution, as companies across the UK struggle to survive.

The North East recorded the greatest year-on-year increase in failures in Quarter 2 at 21.7%, although when compared with Quarter 1 2011 there was a 4.3% drop in businesses going under which should be a positive sign for companies in this region.

According to the latest figures from Equifax, the East Midlands appears to be the most resilient region across the country, with a year-on-year drop in failures of 11.3%.  And this strong performance is also reflected when comparing failures in Q2 with Q1 2011, with a 10.3% fall. The South East, however, appears to be facing a greater struggle. Year-on-year there was an 11.8% rise in failures and the difficult conditions do not appear to have abated when compared to Quarter 1, with a 14.9% increase.

Key Numbers

• •3.4% increase in businesses failing in Quarter 2 2011 compared to the same period in 2010
• 2.2% increase in failures for Quarter 2 2011 compared to Quarter 1 2011
• The North East sees the biggest year on year increase in companies failing
• Quarter on Quarter, the South East shows the biggest rise in failures
• The Retail sector records a 15.9% increase in failures Year on Year, although the Transport & Communications sector has highest Year on Year increase

“This new Report is disappointing given that the trend for more than a year has been a reduction in companies failing,” says Mark Nuttall, Director, Equifax Commercial & SME Services. “Despite failures levelling off slightly in the North West, it’s clear that some businesses have just found it impossible to continue to keep their heads above water as the economy fails to pick-up to any great extent. The failures in the Retail sector in particular would indicate the lack of consumer confidence that has been reported recently.

“However, it is also important to realise that we are now comparing figures to a steady fall in failures for the last 12-18 months, and the actual numbers of failures are still not as heavy as they were in early 2009.”

The latest report from Equifax mirrors a recent British Chambers of Commerce report, suggesting that the UK economy is recovering too slowly, with the BCC saying that more support is needed for private sector firms. Coming a few weeks after a number of high profile failures, including Jane Norman, Moben Kitchens, Dolphin Bathrooms and T J Hughes, it also reinforces that whatever the size of an organisation, focus on credit management is an absolutely crucial component for survival.

“When we took a snapshot of business failures for April/May we could see the early signs of an increase in companies failing – with a 1.5% rise year-on –year,” continues Mark Nuttall.

“Our figures support other reports showing that the UK economy continues to remain fragile, so it’s not surprising that some businesses have just found it too difficult to survive.  That’s why those businesses that have survived so far need to continue operating best practice, no matter which region they are in. Now is the time to harness the power of the latest risk management solutions to minimise the threat of bad debt and secure the future of their business.

“The importance of monitoring existing customer performance cannot be over-stated to ensure businesses weather the unpredictable conditions that exist at the moment.”

Though this is the main business news today, this idea was first muted back in April when the Independent Commission on Banking (ICB), which was set up in 2010 to examine ways to reform the banking sector after the credit crisis.

The ICB recommendation was not to entirely separate banking groups’ altogether, but suggested retail banking should distance itself from investment banking, effectively working as different business units under one parent holding company.

The ICB also recommended that top retail banks should hold a minimum core Tier 1 capital ratio of 10 percent.  This equates to 3% higher than the 7% recommended by the Basel committee of global banking supervisors.

Furthermore, the Commission suggested Lloyds may have to sell more branches on top of an order by European regulators for it to divest some 600 branches following its bailout by the UK government during the credit crisis.

There was a fall in shares in this morning’s market trading, as word spread of George Osborne’s speech and the UK Government backing for the ring-fencing recommendations today.

UK banks believe the recommendations to ring-fence retail banking from riskier trading operations needs further debate.  But the Conservative -Liberal coalition government may use this in an attempt to gain public support by showing they are reforimng the banking industry without damaging the UK’s competiveness in world finance.

Speaking on Radio 4’s Today Programme, Angela Knight British Bankers’ Association chief executive said:

“There are a lot of issues and a lot of details that need to be thought through and need to be discussed.”

The four main banks – Lloyds, HSBC, RBS and Barclays have differing views on the ring-fencing proposal.  Lloyds favour a broad ring-fence including far more assets than a set-up supported by Barclays and RBS.  While HSBC has previously stated that all banking book assets should go into the ring-fence, which would include mortgages, corporate loans and all long-term assets it holds being protected by a government guarantee.

HSBC and Lloyds are equally concerned that a narrow model would create a funding mismatch, whereby the ring-fence would be “overfunded” and not able to use extra deposits to fund its portfolio outside, which would have to be funded in wholesale markets.

“The IMF’s analysis makes it plain that George Osborne doesn’t need a Plan B. He should not be diverted from a strategy to get the deficit under control.

“But he does need Plan A+. He needs a plan that actually includes a serious strategy for growth. Since he became Chancellor, the regulatory burden on British business has actually increased. Banking and financial services – the backbone of our economy – are increasingly used as a political football. And his budget this year merely tinkered with a few minor details.

“Economic growth will not be boosted by splurging more money in an inefficient and absurdly overgrown public sector. The government needs to slash red tape, simplify employment law and provide a more benign environment for British business.”

He concluded:

“If the government does have any room for fiscal manoeuvre, tax cuts should be the priority.”

Prof. Philip Booth, Editorial Director of the Institute of Economic Affairs, said:

“The IMF is very much taking the same line as the coalition and the Bank of England. However, the IMF is arguably too sanguine about inflation and its argument that the coalition’s tax rises have been necessary is implicitly based on the assumption that public spending should not be cut further. By 2015, the state will still be spending at least 40% of national income: greater spending cuts and a reversal of recent tax rises would improve the prospects for economic growth.”

“The current model for providing healthcare in this country is failing. Compared to other systems in developed countries, it lags behind in terms of mortality rates, cancer survival rates, stroke outcomes and heart disease. Sticking with the status quo is not an option; but neither is tweaking a fundamentally flawed model.

“The idea that the NHS is delivering a decent level of healthcare is wholly misguided. Only when patients are treated as customers, and when competing healthcare businesses can vie for their custom, will we see standards rise, waiting times fall and healthcare outcomes improve. Other developed countries have successfully adopted systems whereby people are responsible for their own healthcare funding and where – crucially – the state can still underwrite the healthcare costs of the poor and most vulnerable.

“David Cameron says he loves the NHS. This might well be true. But if he wants the people of this country to have a healthcare system that responds to their needs and provides an adequate level of care then he needs to reject the status quo and show the courage to embrace radical reform.”

The mission of the Institute of Economic Affairs is to improve understanding of the fundamental institutions of a free society by analysing and expounding the role of markets in solving economic and social problems.

Education works when our minds, bodies and souls are fully engaged, as some primary school kids found out when we ran a School of Rock event with the BBC, to help them succeed in exams.

The headteacher said that as well as significantly improving relationships in the classroom, the event made an impact on borderline children in terms of their ability to succeed in their exams.

So whether it’s rap, rock, jazz fusion or hip hop, the message is, “cut the crap and start the rap if you want to get on up in life or business”.

Peter Cook is the Rock’n’Roll Business Guru, delivering exceptional corporate events and keynote speeches that blend business and music.

The new EIB funding complements Santander’s commitment to UK companies and follows its pledge to increase lending to small and medium-sized enterprises by 25% in 2011. In total this equates to an increase in overall lending of £6.7 billion, with £4 billion set aside for SME’s.  This follows a 26% rise in lending last year.

Steve Pateman, Head of Santander Corporate and Commercial Banking, said:

“Ensuring businesses are able to access affordable investment capital is crucial for the UK’s economic recovery. Thanks to our partnership with the EIB, we will be able to assist more small and medium-sized customers with their expansion plans at discounted rates, helping to create local jobs and fuel this recovery. This new fund quickly follows our recent £100 million fund specifically aimed at the higher education sector, also in partnership with the EIB.”

Simon Brooks, European Investment Bank Vice President, responsible for the United Kingdom, said:

“The European Investment Bank is pleased to increase funding for British SMEs through Santander. This is part of our wider engagement to assist SMEs across the UK and elsewhere in Europe to continue to access investment finance during economically challenging times.”

To date, Santander has lent £129 million through the EIB scheme, helping 136 companies to invest in and grow their businesses. Recent examples include: financing Country Court Care Homes’ acquisition of Sheffield-based Abbey Grange Nursing Home after it was placed into administration; financing the expansion of Hampshire-based manufacturing firm St Clare Engineering Ltd with the acquisition of additional premises; and financing the purchase and restaurant expansion of Somerset’s historic hotel, The Old Vicarage. All three purchases helped protect or generate local jobs.

Last year 115,000 European SMEs benefited from EIB funding, and over the last three years EUR 30 billion has been provided to SMEs across Europe by the bank.  Over the last three years the EIB has signed EUR 2 billion for SME funding in the UK.

The £150 million fund will help support firms looking to invest in their businesses, in turn helping to generate new jobs and drive local economic growth.

The new funding is available immediately to companies with fewer than 250 employees looking for loans of up to EUR 12.5 million for a minimum of two years. Some sector restrictions apply.

Microsoft buys Skype for £5.2bn

Skype is based in Luxembourg and currently has 663 million global users. Last year it originally intended for a share flotation but the plan was put on hold and this week Microsoft announced it is to buy the internet phone company. The deal will see Microsoft pay £5.2bn ($8.5bn) for Skype, making it Microsoft’s largest acquisition to date.

Skype was originally bought by eBay for $2.6bn in 2006 but they sold 70% of it in 2009 for $2bn. This was subsequently bought by a group of investors led by private equity firms Silver Lake and Andreessen Horowit.

Some analysts believe this is quite a high price to pay for an eight year old company that is still not making much revenue.  But Microsoft has obviously got their reasons for the purchase. Some have suggested Microsoft’s aim in buying Skype is to improve its own video conferencing services.  But there are plenty of other possibilities for using this service.

Many customers use the internet phone company for international voice calls.  These calls using VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) are free but Skype charges customers for calling direct to mobile phones or landlines.

But Microsoft may be acquiring Skype to offer as part of a bigger package.  Tim Weber, BBC website Business editor suggests Skype’s software could be even more successful if linked with the Microsoft’s Xbox Kinect games console and an HD television set.

He goes onto to say:

“Think beyond teleconferencing for the whole family: there’s one-on-one training, home schooling, even patient care delivered remotely and in vision.”

Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer said: “Skype is a phenomenal service that is loved by millions of people around the world [...] Together we will create the future of real-time communications so people can easily stay connected to family, friends, clients and colleagues anywhere in the world.”